MILLIONTOWN

I listened to this record repeatedly for a week, put it away for a few weeks and gave it a couple of more spins. My conclusion is that this is an excellent release, just not quite a 4 star album. The first and last songs are exceptional in their own ways.

"Hyperventilate" is an instrumental and a real rocker, and no doubt would be a highlight live. It opens so gently but when it kicks in, it kicks in. John Mitchell absolutely lights it up 2 minutes in.Then a minute later his leads are so tasteful. Great driving song. I love the way the over 26 minute song "Milliontown"starts, with a guy talking about how in the Bible whenever God wanted to destroy a city or people, he would send an angel to do it. He concludes the monologue with "So would you ever really want to see an angel ?" There is a real Neal Morse feel in this song, along with some good guitar and piano.

I must give Jem his due, his singing and piano playing do not take a back seat to the allstar prog band he assembled here. I would also say the rhythm section really stands out on many occasions, and look forward to drummer Andy's first studio work with IQ, he sure has the pedigree and the talent. The IQ tandem really stand out on "No Me No You". Again the lighter parts of this song i'm reminded of Neal Morse, which is a good thing of course. "Snowman" is a song that is quite mellow and is like taking a break after the first two barn burners. Nice piano and acoustic guitar in this one. "The Other Me" has some funky bass lines happening.

This is really well produced and it will be very interesting to see what FROST has in store for us in the future. 3.5 Stars.